It’s a conference about progressive reform, and it takes place from Friday (now) through Sunday. A lot is available through video streaming, including all the plenary sessions. There are a lot of interesting speakers. See here.

Different factions in Congress are giving their advance interpretations of the possible government shut down. Here’s the NY Times various versions of the two:

The Democrats:

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, offered a lengthier, scathing criticism of Mr. Boehner and House Republicans, accusing them of wanting to shut down the federal government by insisting on cutting funds for women’s heath services.

“This is indefensible and everyone should be outraged,” Mr. Reid said on the Senate floor. “The Republican House leadership have only a couple of hours to look in the mirror, snap out of it and realize how truly shameful they have been.” …

Democratic officials familiar with the negotiations said that proposed restrictions on money for Planned Parenthood remained the chief sticking point, and that attempts to resolve the disagreement through alternatives like allowing a separate floor vote on the issue had not been successful. Democrats said they were told by the Republicans that the votes of anti-abortion social conservatives would be needed to move any budget measure through the House.

The Republicans:

In a terse statement to reporters, House Speaker John Boehner said there is “only one reason we do not have an agreement yet and that is spending,” and asked “when will the White House and when will Senate Demorats get serious about cutting spending?”…

“The largest issue is still spending cuts,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said Friday morning.

The NY Times says these are contrasting explanations, but they don’t point out where the contrast lies. Given the Republican well-documented plans for Planned Parenthood, the contrast seems to be in informative detail,

Assistant Professor Philosophy Namita Goswami and Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Quinetta Shelby were among half a dozen faculty of color (of a dozen who applied) who were denied tenure at DePaul last year. All 22 white faculty members who applied for tenure got it.

‘Goswami’s attorney, Lynne Bernabei, says from very early on there’s been a pattern of discrimination. “Even though Dr. Goswami was hired to do critical race, postcolonial, and feminist work—all by nature challenging to more traditional approaches—they held it against her when she did. They hired her and then wouldn’t let her do her work. They made statements about her scholarship and teaching which, after it was pointed out that they were false, were repeated in the tenure review. DePaul has basically abdicated its tenure process.”‘